EP 0 201 619 B1 describes a method for correcting the profile of a railway wheel in a material-saving way using a machining process. This well-known method is used when areas of the profile deviate from a nominal profile due to material wear on the running surface and/or wheel flange, it is characterised by the fact that profile areas with lesser wear are detected, whereupon these are subjected to a forming process, displacing material from the profile areas which flows into deeper-lying areas and at least partially fills the most worn areas with material before the radial position of a corrected profile is determined, which is produced by the cutting process and is offset radially outwards with respect to the wear profile. Hence, the application of this method presupposes that the worn wheel flange is subjected to a forming operation such as rolling or forging, and that thereby material is removed from the tip of the round edge of the wheel flange so that the amount of material that is displaced to the flange peak, thereby increasing the thickness of the wheel flange, is shifted towards the running surface. From this reference to the state of the art, it is apparent to an expert that the reprofiling of railway wheelsets can be performed only on machines which do not belong into the category of underfloor lathes. It would, therefore, seem to be impossible that the method disclosed in EP 0 201 619 B1 could be applied to underfloor wheelset lathes.
DE 10 2006 054 437 A1 describes a method for reprofiling a railway wheel belonging to a railway wheelset by machining. This method is characterised by limiting reprofiling to the removal of instances of out-of-roundness in a first, central area to both sides of the measuring circle plane of the railway wheel; in a second area extending from the outer edge of the profile to the central area, the nominal contour is restored, and in a third area extending from the middle section up to the wheel flange, reprofiling is limited to the removal of a layer close to the surface. Although this method is somewhat more suitable to be applied to underfloor wheelset lathes, there is nevertheless no indication in this principle according to DE 10 2006 054 437 A1 as to how highly accurate reprofiling can be carried out on an underfloor wheelset lathe.
However, highly accurate reprofiling of a wheelset is the prerequisite before such a wheelset can be used on high-speed vehicles. It is characteristic of the wear pattern of a wheelset for use in high-speed ranges that in the initial stage material will be rolled out in the area of the measuring circle plane and shifted equally to the wheel flange side and to the outer side of the wheel tyre.
This insight gives rise to the purpose of the present invention; namely, to propose a method in which the mileage of the wheelsets can be significantly increased with a minimal removal of material. According to the method to be created, it should in particular be possible to reprofile the wheelsets of high-speed vehicles. As such, a wheel to be reprofiled is to be machined on an underfloor wheelset lathe in a single cut with a cutting depth of between 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm. In doing so, the maximum deviation from the nominal diameter should not exceed a value of 0.1 mm. The highly accurate reprofiling on an underfloor wheelset lathe should also increase cost-effectiveness, since the wheelset does not need to be removed from the vehicle in order to be reprofiled.